May 9, 2012

There were over 900,000 signatures (supposedly valid signatures) on the petitions. That's over 200,000 people who forced this expensive procedure on the state and then didn't care enough to participate.

Who are those people?

They don't exist. The petitions had that many fake names.

They changed their minds and support Walker now.

They signed the petitions because they were afraid of what union thugs and others might do to them.

They were just weak people succumbing to social pressure.

They're lazy. It's easier to sign than not sign, but a bit of trouble to vote.

(Just pick the best answer. Your desire to vote "all of the above" or 2 or 3 of the above can go in the comments. Those answers make boring results in a poll like this. Deal with it. This isn't pollster science I'm doing here.)

86 comments:

Realistically, I think it is a mixture between social pressure to sign what someone you like put in front of you and laziness. (with, maybe, a few thousand fake names, people not really living there, blank spaces erroneously counted among the signatures, etc.)

Ditto mystickeeper - exactly what I came to say. Also, I voted fake signatures, but I think its a combination of that and laziness, with a possible rationale for the laziness being what mystickeeper said.

They thought it was a big enough controversy that it should be put to a popular vote, even though they were personally happy with the status-quo. Or they thought that if it could be demonstrated by vote that a plurality of the voting public were really behind the changes, the demonstrations would end and life would go back to normal.

If you were at a union meeting and they were passing around petitions, would you NOT sign it?

Also, a commenter mentioned at the last thread, if it was Thanksgiving and one of the persons at the table was, say, a teacher, and circulating a petition would you sign it and keep the peace or let the whole thing blow up?

I have a feeling there was a lot of this, plus WAY more fraud than the GAB cared to inform us about.

In addition to the social pressure, people also put forward the arguement that signing the petition doesn't really mean that you want to recall the man, just that you have the pleasantly democratic motive of enabling an election to take place. Never mind the tremendous expense, of course!

Let's see. Four Dems together get 52% of the total votes cast, in a crucial election they've been preparing for since BEFORE Governor Walker was even elected, AND just over half of the people who signed recall petitions bothered to come out and vote.

Governor Walker, running effectively unopposed in a primary that the media hardly mentioned, against a joke candidate who was only on the ballot because the GAB gave him extra time to correct filing mistakes, gets 48% of the total votes case, and about half the total number of votes he got in the November 2010 election. Sounds like a pretty good result for the Governor to me.

The lack of political astuteness and critical thinking by most of those on the left shouldn't amaze me, I guess, because after all, these are the same people who voted for Obama, the most unqualified president we have ever had.

Do I want a recall is an entirely separate question from Do I want to vote in the recall. I may think for example that it's just for others to have their vote even though I don't want mine. That's their right.

And really, give it up with the John Doe probe and the legal defense fund. It's a witch hunt by a politically-motivated DA, and it hasn't come up with anything substantive against Walker in two years of digging.

Walker would be an idiot if he discussed it with the media, who've shown their bias again and again, and he'd be an idiot if he didn't have a legal defense fund given the irrationality of the people who are going after him.

Garage, it's the Dems who had the primary. There was no reason for Walker voters to come out - no meaningful opposition. The Dems, on the other hand had all the reason in the world to come out - but didn't.

rage mahal said...Wh Er, I mean minority. Walker would have lost last night with Dems getting 52%

Er, the Republican received 626,538 votes, while the two top Democrats took 619,049 combined. Put together the total of all four Democratic candidates, and they manage to beat Mr. Walker’s total, taking 670,278 combined.

In hindsight, it does look like it's all a plan from the right. The left base is our greatest ally. Which is the only reason I can think of that voting for Obama made sense. He's a false flag President. Althouse, you mischievous genius.

There is a victory in this primary for the state of Wisconsin. The primary voters rejected the ultra-progressive Falk in favor of the more centrists,less union owned Barrett. That's a win for the state regardless of how the general election turns out.

I voted "lazy." That's pretty much my default assumption when people don't turn out to vote. Not that laziness is a bad thing in an electorate; I'd far rather have a smaller number of voters that have some actual interest in the outcome -- enough to have educated themselves on the questions at issue -- than a larger one that votes by rote.

The mystery to me is the huge Walker turnout. Was there widespread fear that his challenger would win (due to crossover votes or whatever)? I didn't even know that anyone was running against him on the Republican side until Ann posted about it a couple of days ago. Amazing that 600K+ people showed up to vote for him.

One thing is for sure from leading all the lefty comments in this post and others, the Recall really is simply about retribution. The lazy selfish union fucks are not going to get their collective bargaining back, they don't care who represents them, they can't even keep a reason for the recall for more than a fucking week. It's about workers rights, no it's about the children, no it's about women, no it's about jobs. Who are you crappin?!?

Tom Barrett is going to be squashed like the cockroaches that he now represents. But don't feel bad, on June 7th he will still have his cozy gig as mayor of Milwaukee, where he can constinue to do nothing as much of the city continues to swirl in the bowl.

Tradguy, I'd suggest Althouse and Meade get ready to preserve the Walker recall election night thread for posterity. If garage is losing his shit this eary, June promises to be a meltdown of Chernobyl proportions.

According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 400,000 of the recall petitions signers did not vote in 2010. Factor out the ones under the age of 20 (couldn't vote in 2010) & that explains at least 200,000 right there. Good luck getting those 400,000 motivated to vote in June.

Just reality. Walker isn't particularly bright. He didn't think of all this on his own. None of these goobers in the legislature were smart enough either - all these bills were written by ALEC and the like.

The Reagan conservatives are better at economics than Socialists. But the GOP regimes tend to sell out to the highest bidder as if that is their job.

As a lawyer with a son still active in Plaintiff's litigation, I know how hard hearted the Bush appointees in Federal District Courts are in eliminating (by new Expert Witness fiat rules at a judges discretion) the rights of recovery that belong to legitimately injured plaintiffs. It has become as bad as Chavez in expropriating property of Venezuelans.

Over the last 7 years the GOP appointed judges in the system are significantly rigging outcomes in favor of the Corporations and the defense firms who "win" for thir Insurance companies.

And when a serious known medical need has new treatments found, getting the new treatments funded is nearly impossible.

We really do NOT want Rick Perry's Texas style that protects Corporations from the legal system extended everywhere.

So I have also become quasi-impervious to mindless right wing spin.

But Obama is another matter He actually is an enemy 5th column agent inside the Government. He is not a liberal; and real liberals need to help the right wing to get him out while we still have a country left.

I like Terry Moulton's chances for Senate re-election in EC/Chippewa. His Dem opponent Kristen Dexter only drew 64% of the vote in the Dem primary against one of garage's favorite "fake" Democrats that no one had even heard of before yesterday.

It's was clear there were family or neighborhood groups (not unexpected). Some names were prnted, sopme siognatures completely illegible, but I usually gave those the benefit of the doubt, since signatures are an art form, it seems.

The petitions were checked by more than one person (i.e. if there were questionables or unknowns on it someone else apparently gave it a look).

I was surprised that only 4 turned up "fake." A fifth "fake" was a woman who someone found on Ffacebook, therefore she must be is "real" (?) and they included her. But note that she was not found on the list of registered voters.

Are there that many people who are not registered to vote in WI?

I think some people had second thoughts. What seemed like a good idea (boot Walker) turned out, when they looked at real numbers, like a not so good idea if they realized their money would be affected adversely.

It is very difficult for "crisp conservatives" to accept that nearly a million folks did sign the petitions, especially when they predicted that this could not possibly happen, but it did. I suspect folks are nervous because the polls show Walker with only a one point lead over Barrett, and depending on the energy Barrett can sum up, and any further revelations from the investigation causing more Walker aids to get arrested-- well who knows what could happen.

any thoughts on why more people voted in the Dem Lt Gov race than in the Dem Gov race

Republicans who voted for Walker were able to jump down the ballot and vote for whoever they wanted to run against Rebecca Kleefisch - whomever they perceived as beatable. There was a "protest" candidate, although the Republicans did not have a wide spread effort to encourage anyone to vote for him. Also, the votes that Kohls-Riggs got (against Walker) were most likely Dems that then voted for the Lt. Gov. candidate that they think could beat Kleefisch.

"But the GOP regimes tend to sell out to the highest bidder as if that is their job."

This is the kind of patently ignorant nonsense that Democrats give us. Who is selling out to Hollywood with oppressive "anti-piracy" legislation? Democrats. Who is known as "President Goldman Sachs"? A Democrat.

Who misappropriated a billion dollars of client money, and is not only still free, not only not charged at all, but is bundling donations for President Obama? Democrat Jon Corzine.

It is very difficult for "crisp conservatives" to accept that nearly a million folks did sign the petitions, especially when they predicted that this could not possibly happen, but it did.

This message, once so compelling, is now officially behind the curve. It doesn't matter anymore. The new high water mark is that 626,000 people turned out to vote for Scott Walker even though his nomination was never in doubt. That's more than the Democrats were able to get out for their top two candidates.

Garage hangs on to the raw vote totals because that's all he has, folks. Any analysis (like, "if just one in twenty votes in the Dem primary were cast by Walker supporters who wanted to influence the contested primary, more Walker supporters went to the polls yesterday than Walker opponents") makes it immediately obvious that the vote was a very bad sign for anti-Walker forces.

You can't really expect Garage to be emotionally mature enough to face that.

I know a few people who did not sign the petition and voted for Falk in order to support the less viable Democrat. Those people will vote for Walker come June and I think there are many others who did the same. I had zero interest in voting in the primary, but will also vote for Walker come June -- and I'm sure there are many others like me. I think the recall is unlikely.